2024 UPDATE!! Altman: prepare for AI to be "uncomfortable" 33% US jobs gone..SKYNET, AI medical advances? BASIC INCOME? 1st AI MOVIE! AI MAYOR!!
- Thread starter GnauzBookOfRhymes
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GnauzBookOfRhymes
Superstar
Good question. Answer has two parts. One part facetious, the other more serious.
1. Did you read the entire title of the thread
BASIC INCOME!Basic income is going to cover what people NEED. That will ensure that some, large parts of the economy - food for instance - will remain in much the same way it operates today.
2. More importantly though - and I haven't seen people really talk about this - this new AI driven world necessarily means that entire sectors of our economy will eventually disappear. Capitalism as we know it is on the menu bc the system will no longer need to produce all of this shyt. Many companies/industries wetting themselves in excitement to use AI to drive profits/productivity/cut workforce, will themselves disappear into obsolescence. The market for "luxuries" will be much smaller than it is today.
Hood Critic
The Power Circle
That's the issue though, just about every article or segment on this topic through various mediums is presented in exactly this fashion. As if SkyNet is coming to take over the world and humanity will soon be answering to the AI overlords.
AI is another generational disruptive technology akin to the printing press, the internet, social media, etc. History has taught us these technologies change the landscape of the workforce as well as society. AI will definitely replace many functions in our society but we rarely hear in contrast to these conversations what functions/jobs it will create.
GnauzBookOfRhymes
Superstar
A Decade of Fighting Bad Bots: Key Learnings from the 2023 Imperva Bad Bot Report | Imperva
The 2023 Imperva Bad Bot Report is now available. The 10th edition of the annual report takes a deep dive into the latest bad bot statistics and trends from the past year, providing meaningful information and guidance about the nature and impact of bots to help organizations better understand...
www.imperva.com
47% of all online activity from bots (good and bad).
GnauzBookOfRhymes
Superstar
GnauzBookOfRhymes
Superstar
A secretive annual meeting attended by the world's elite has A.I. top of the agenda
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will join forces with key leadership from Microsoft, DeepMind and Google on Thursday as the secretive Bilderberg Meeting kick-starts.
CNET Workers Unionize as ‘Automated Technology Threatens Our Jobs’
Around 100 workers have organized in response to the company’s restructuring plans, massive layoffs, and plans for AI content.
www.vice.com
CNET Workers Unionize as ‘Automated Technology Threatens Our Jobs’
Around 100 workers have organized in response to the company’s restructuring plans, massive layoffs, and plans for AI content.
By Jules Roscoe
NEW YORK, US
May 16, 2023, 12:15pm
Around 100 workers are unionizing at CNET, a popular tech news and product review site, in response to a “lack of transparency” from management regarding layoffs and the company’s use of AI, according to an announcement by the union Tuesday.
The announcement comes just a few months after journalists at Futurism revealed that CNET had published articles written by AI instead of by its writers—articles which contained a multitude of extremely basic errors—and that it had not properly disclosed that fact to its team. Despite these developments in CNET’s content creation, a representative for the union said that organizing had started long before.
“The organizing campaign at CNET started before the news of AI at our outlet,” the representative said. “Forming a union was a very human decision that allowed us to come together to bring the highest standards to our work and to maintain the integrity of CNET as a trusted source. We need the same protections and assurances that other digital media shops have secured through union contracts, especially as new technologies are introduced.”
The workers, who include writers, editors, and video producers, will join the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), as the CNET Media Workers Union. WGAE is also responsible for unionizing numerous other online media sites, and represents 7,000 workers in industries like film, news, and online media. (This includes VICE Union, which represents Motherboard staff.)
“The digital media landscape is transforming rapidly,” reads a letter written to CNET management explaining the workers’ choice to organize. “In this time of instability, our diverse content teams need industry-standard job protections, fair compensation, editorial independence and a voice in the decision-making process, especially as automated technology threatens our jobs and reputations. A union will help us adapt to new business strategies while establishing high journalistic standards and practices.”
The rapid development of AI models like ChatGPT-4 has recently caused lots of concern in writing industries. The ongoing film and TV writers’ strike has labeled AI as a serious point of contention between workers and management, and the union wants to “regulate use of material produced using artificial intelligence or similar technologies” in its contract to protect writers’ jobs. AI isn’t yet good enough to replace a team of writers, but it is cheaper.
A second major point raised by the CNET Media Workers Union letter addresses layoffs and “restructuring” after the company’s acquisition by Red Venture in 2020.
“CNET media workers have been subjected to ongoing restructuring, cost-cutting austerity measures, shifting job roles and promotion freezes,” the letter reads. “In the past year, three major rounds of layoffs have deeply impacted our reporting and our teams. Red Ventures cut senior editorial positions, eliminated the Roadshow cars section, drastically slashed our video team, gutted our news division and shut down science and culture coverage. These unilateral overhauls created low morale and unease, resulting in a wave of resignations and talent attrition.”
“We face a lack of transparency and accountability from management around performance evaluations, sponsored content and plans for artificial intelligence,” it continues. “We are concerned about the blurring of editorial and monetization strategies.”
The union is asking CNET and Red Ventures for voluntary recognition. CNET did not respond to a request for comment.
GnauzBookOfRhymes
Superstar
Remember when I posted this
finance.yahoo.com
Bill Gates says the winner of the A.I. race will be whoever creates a personal assistant—and it’ll spell the end for Amazon
Gates also said search engines will lose their relevance once consumers can access A.I. personal agents en masse.
Eating Disorder Helpline Fires Staff, Transitions to Chatbot After Unionization
The chatbot is named "Tessa" and will replace the entire Helpline program starting June 1.
www.vice.com
Eating Disorder Helpline Fires Staff, Transitions to Chatbot After Unionization
The chatbot is named "Tessa" and will replace the entire Helpline program starting June 1.
By Chloe Xiang
IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES
Executives at the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) decided to replace hotline workers with a chatbot named Tessa four days after the workers unionized.
NEDA, the largest nonprofit organization dedicated to eating disorders, has had a helpline for the last twenty years that provided support to hundreds of thousands of people via chat, phone call, and text. “NEDA claims this was a long-anticipated change and that AI can better serve those with eating disorders. But do not be fooled—this isn’t really about a chatbot. This is about union busting, plain and simple,” helpline associate and union member Abbie Harper wrote in a blog post.
According to Harper, the helpline is composed of six paid staffers, a couple of supervisors, and up to 200 volunteers at any given time. A group of four full-time workers at NEDA, including Harper, decided to unionize because they felt overwhelmed and understaffed.
“We asked for adequate staffing and ongoing training to keep up with our changing and growing Helpline, and opportunities for promotion to grow within NEDA. We didn’t even ask for more money,” Harper wrote. “When NEDA refused [to recognize our union], we filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board and won on March 17. Then, four days after our election results were certified, all four of us were told we were being let go and replaced by a chatbot.”
The chatbot, named Tessa, is described as a “wellness chatbot” and has been in operation since February 2022. The Helpline program will end starting June 1, and Tessa will become the main support system available through NEDA. Helpline volunteers were also asked to step down from their one-on-one support roles and serve as “testers” for the chatbot. According to NPR, which obtained a recording of the call where NEDA fired helpline staff and announced a transition to the chatbot, Tessa was created by a team at Washington University’s medical school and spearheaded by Dr. Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft. The chatbot was trained to specifically address body image issues using therapeutic methods and only has a limited number of responses.
“The chatbot was created based on decades of research conducted by myself and my colleagues,” Fitzsimmons-Craft told Motherboard. “I’m not discounting in any way the potential helpfulness to talk to somebody about concerns. It’s an entirely different service designed to teach people evidence-based strategies to prevent and provide some early intervention for eating disorder symptoms.”
“Please note that Tessa, the chatbot program, is NOT a replacement for the Helpline; it is a completely different program offering and was borne out of the need to adapt to the changing needs and expectations of our community,” a NEDA spokesperson told Motherboard. “Also, Tessa is NOT ChatGBT [sic], this is a rule-based, guided conversation. Tessa does not make decisions or ‘grow’ with the chatter; the program follows predetermined pathways based upon the researcher’s knowledge of individuals and their needs.”
The NEDA spokesperson also told Motherboard that Tessa was tested on 700 women between November 2021 through 2023 and 375 of them gave Tessa a 100% helpful rating. “As the researchers concluded their evaluation of the study, they found the success of Tessa demonstrates the potential advantages of chatbots as a cost-effective, easily accessible, and non-stigmatizing option for prevention and intervention in eating disorders,” they wrote.
Harper thinks that the implementation of Tessa strips away the personal aspect of the support hotline, in which many of the associates can speak from their own experiences. “Some of us have personally recovered from eating disorders and bring that invaluable experience to our work. All of us came to this job because of our passion for eating disorders and mental health advocacy and our desire to make a difference,” she wrote in her blog post.
Harper told NPR that many times people ask the staffers if they are a real person or a robot. “No one's like, oh, shoot. You're a person. Well, bye. It's not the same. And there's something very special about being able to share that kind of lived experience with another person.”
Motherboard tested the currently public version of Tessa and was told that it was a chatbot off the bat. “Hi there, I’m Tessa. I am a mental health support chatbot here to help you feel better whenever you need a stigma-free way to talk - day or night,” the first text read. The chatbot then failed to respond to any texts I sent including “I’m feeling down,” and “I hate my body.”
Though Tessa is not GPT-based and has a limited range of what it can say, there have been many instances of AI going off the rails when being applied to people in mental health crises. In January, a mental health nonprofit called Koko came under fire for using GPT-3 on people seeking counseling. Founder Rob Morris said that when people found out they had been talking to a bot, they were disturbed by the “simulated empathy.” AI researchers I spoke to then warned against the application of chatbots on people in mental health crises, especially when chatbots are left to operate without human supervision. In a more severe recent case, a Belgian man committed suicide after speaking with a personified AI chatbot called Eliza. Even when people know they are talking to a chatbot, the presentation of a chatbot using a name and first-person pronouns makes it extremely difficult for users to understand that the chatbot is not actually sentient or capable of feeling any emotions.
NEDA Helpline Associates Union did not immediately respond to Motherboard’s request for comment.
GnauzBookOfRhymes
Superstar
Imagine the first time one of these therapy bots replies with "I know it can feel....."
GnauzBookOfRhymes
Superstar
Double post
GnauzBookOfRhymes
Superstar
Breh...
Grand opening grand closing
@bnew
www.vice.com
Grand opening grand closing
@bnew
Eating Disorder Helpline Disables Chatbot for 'Harmful' Responses After Firing Human Staff
“Every single thing Tessa suggested were things that led to the development of my eating disorder.”
www.vice.com
